Wayne Brady’s triumphant return

THE Strip has a new headliner, Wayne Brady. This is hardly a surprise, because Brady’s trial run earlier this year at the Venetian was extended through the end of June. Still, Brady has just inked a deal to perform 26 weeks over the next year starting Aug. 4 at the Venetian.

A regular gig in Vegas is the sort of opportunity far more famous performers would kill for. But leaving aside fame and talent, few displayed the Vegas savvy of Wayne Brady in creating this show. He came here armed with an advanced understanding of how to entertain in Vegas.

Brady’s Venetian show is very much a Vegas offering -- the performer backed by a band and dancers and offering edgier humor than the kind familiar to his television fans (Brady says his act is aimed at the 17-and-over set). But what makes the show special is that he has managed to mix old-school Vegas entertainment with new-Vegas cool. There is nothing Brady’s show offers that can’t be seen elsewhere on the Strip: variety show elements, the stand-up, the impersonations, the singing, the skits, the dancers, a little video, some audience interaction and even improv.

He enters the showroom in grand style wearing a white suit, singing and swinging a cane backed by his four dancers. Who knew Brady could toss off a hilarious, angst-filled Scott Stapp impersonation while being nudged to create a song about driving a lawnmower in the style of Stapp’s former band, Creed? Then comes the improvised rapping.

Finally, Vegas has a Vegas-style entertainment offering that feels fresh and not cheesy to compete with Broadway and Cirque. So no surprise to discover when I met him that his ascent in Vegas turns out to be no accident. In fact, he was here before anyone ever heard of Wayne Brady.

He started his career in entertainment at age 16 with a basic philosophy: “No matter what it is, I am going to work in this field,” he recalls. “There is nothing against waiting tables, which is a noble profession that many actors are drawn to do. But that was not what I wanted to do.”

He worked in two shows at the MGM back when the resort still had a theme park. “You have five shows a day. You learn the show and you do it. You have five different audiences. If the show is good, you can really be given a chance to sing, dance and act.” At night, he would check out the musical acts and headliners in the lounges and showrooms on the Strip.

While living and working in Vegas, Brady was also regularly heading to L.A. “I would work five days in Vegas, then go to L.A. and get head shots, do showcases, and I was a member of an improv group.” Eventually, he began to catch breaks in television. Now at 35, Brady is a rounded show-business veteran. He has Emmys from both his stint as a talk-show host and his work on the ABC comedy/variety show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Fox this week is launching a game show hosted by Brady called “Don’t Forget the Lyrics.”

His busy schedule didn’t bring him back here until he found himself performing at Caesars as part of a tour of Drew Carey’s improv troupe in 2000. “I’ve always been a showbiz nerd. I dig showbiz. I like old-school showbiz. There is an ambience about it. The Rat Pack had it, and so did guys like Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs. That felt really cool.”

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Cirque’s ‘Love’-in

Last month was the celebration for the one-year anniversary of “Love.” The event brought to the Mirage Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison. Even Larry King showed up to conduct a joint interview with these all-star owners of Apple Corps. The event should give you some idea of how much money “Love” must be making. But that is not the entire story.

Even after the the hoopla passed, the Mirage was still out working at getting side benefits for its dedication to the Fab Four. Early July found the resort hosting a three-day “Fest for Beatles Fans” expecting up to 6,500 attendees. Even on a Sunday, the convention filled a ballroom with thousands of hard-core Beatles fans excited to see drummer Pete Best’s band and members of Wings not named McCartney perform and to check out memorabilia as well as play Beatles trivia games and listen to memories of those lucky few who rubbed shoulders with the band.

That this is the first time this convention has come to Vegas in its 33-year history is no accident. According to convention organizer and founder Mark Lapidos, the Mirage began courting him last year.

The truth is that many of the tourists who arrive in Vegas these days are like this convention: the very people who a few decades ago would never have dreamed that Vegas could be their idea of the perfect place to go.

In fact, when the Beatles came to Vegas to play a concert in 1964, no casino wanted to book them. They ended up playing off the Strip.

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For more of what’s happening on and off the Strip, see latimes.com/movablebuffet.